October 4, 2021August 24, 2021 RTMeditorsKG2 Comments

Artful Ceremonial Expression by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This article is an edited excerpt from Chapter 7 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. I always wore a special headpiece for the Seasonal ceremonies when Read More …

September 6, 2021September 6, 2021 RTMeditorsKG2 Comments

(Essay) The Emergence celebrated at Spring Equinox by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

The Spring Equinox Moment occurs September 21-23 Southern Hemisphere, March 21-23 Northern Hemisphere. The full story of Spring Equinox is expressed in the full flower connected to the seed fresh Read More …

June 22, 2021June 1, 2021 RTMeditorsKG4 Comments

(Video) Winter Solstice Goddess Slideshow by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Each year between June 20-23 the dark part of the day reaches its peak in the Southern Hemisphere: it is the Winter Solstice Moment. Poetry of the Season may be Read More …

May 3, 2021March 29, 2021 RTMeditorsKGLeave a comment

The Cosmos is a Ritual by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from the Introduction to the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion Dawn and dusk, seasons, supernovas – it is an ongoing Event Read More …

March 1, 2021February 4, 2021 Glenys D. LivingstoneLeave a comment

(Essay 3) Cosmogenesis and the Female Metaphor: Her Resonances with the Three Qualities by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is part 3 of an edited excerpt from Chapter 4 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. In my authoring of PaGaian Cosmology, I have Read More …

February 1, 2021December 31, 2020 Glenys D. LivingstoneLeave a comment

(Essay 3) Crack in the Alienated Colonised Mind by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is part 3 of an edited excerpt from the author’s Introduction to her book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. The book is based on her doctoral thesis Read More …

January 4, 2021December 24, 2020 Glenys D. LivingstoneLeave a comment

(Essay 2) Cosmogenesis and the Female Metaphor: Goddess as Cosmological Creativity by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D

This essay is part 2 of an edited excerpt from Chapter 4 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Charlene Spretnak has noted that: When a woman Read More …

December 21, 2020November 12, 2020 Glenys D. Livingstone1 Comment

(Slideshow) Summer Solstice Goddess by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Each year between December 20-23 Sun reaches Her peak in the Southern Hemisphere: it is the Summer Solstice Moment. Poetry of the Season may be expressed in this way: This Read More …

November 2, 2020November 2, 2020 Glenys D. LivingstoneLeave a comment

(Slideshow) Beltaine Goddess by Glenys Livingstone, Ph.D.

On November 7th at 22:56 UTC EarthGaia crosses the midpoint in Her orbit between Equinox and Solstice. In the Southern Hemisphere it is the Season of Beltaine – a maturing of Read More …

October 5, 2020September 6, 2020 Glenys D. LivingstoneLeave a comment

Cosmogenesis and Female Metaphor: Gaia’s Creative Dynamics by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 4 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. The Moon was a sliver of light when She first appeared Read More …

September 7, 2020September 7, 2020 Glenys D. LivingstoneLeave a comment

Goddess as Religion by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from chapter 2 of the author’s book, PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. The Female Metaphor/Goddess is often stated as (given the status of) Read More …

July 6, 2020July 6, 2020 Glenys D. Livingstone6 Comments

Goddess Epiphany 1978: She was Laughing, by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a young woman with a toddling child, who went off to the mythical land of Berkeley California, all the way Read More …

June 1, 2020April 27, 2020 Glenys D. LivingstoneLeave a comment

Female Metaphor for Cosmic Unfolding: a Template of Wholeness by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is the preface to my doctoral thesis (Social Ecology, 2002) which was titled The Female Metaphor – Virgin, Mother, Crone – of the Dynamic Cosmological Unfolding: Her Embodiment in Read More …

(Essay 13) The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia by Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen

[This part and the forthcoming sequels are an elaborated version of the original article entitled “The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia—a late Shamanistic Branch of the Old European Civilization?” by Märta-Lena Bergstedt & Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen, included in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Mago Books, 2018) Edited by Mary Ann Beavis and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.] The Mythic Vanir Mothers becoming Goddesses in the Asir Pantheon Universally, the transition into patriarchy is constituted by new laws, divine and secular, which admitted elite males to own land, including its riches and the people living there and working it, and to own biological children/sons, who were now given sur- or family names after their fathers. Their all-encompassing rights were claimed to rest on divine sanction, which further furnished males with lawful rights also to defend their privileges with violence. The spiritual world was now put exclusive into male hands. The take-over of the Asir chieftain, Odin followed the world-wide, traditional PIE-scheme. Odin set up his divine pantheon Asgård, a parallel, but invisible realm above the Earth, and Odin became its sovereign top-figure and master. For this new epoch, Carlsson argues; ”The new house-carl-ideology (400-550CE) demanded new gods; and the creation of Odin-cult and Asir-belief need to be seen in this context.” (Our translation from Swedish).[1] Using the Odin figure as metaphor for the patriarchal take-over in which the Vanir Mothers, after over a thousand of years as mythic icons in the Old society, now became goddesses in Odin’s Asgård, and subordinated as wives to the Asir gods, we will re-tell the story of the transition as a narrative, based on the mythological references in the Icelandic sagas. The Asirs coming up from Asia (Troy),[2] if not literally then at least true for the patriarchal ideas that he intended to implant, Odin had his strategy clear to put into action. In order to succeed in establishing a warfare society and religion, he first of all needed the full control over the local Vanir females, the mythical and the physical human. Alternately using tricks or violence, he intended to wrest out of their hands all rights to their inherited land, their natural rights to their children, their sexual freedom, as also their shamanism and spiritual world. To be able fully to control them, Odin wanted the Vanir female entities literally interwoven, and totally integrated and absorbed into his new mythology. Hoping for a minimum of resistance, he wished to create an illusion and to make believe that the new order of society was nothing but a natural continuation of the old – and no conflict there between them. For these reasons, Odin, renowned for never losing a war, for once refrained from demanding the enemies into his hands by swinging his spear, Gungner over the battlefield.[3] On purpose, he let this first war in Scandinavia, the Vanir-Asir war, end in a draw. The peace agreement, and the exchange of hostages that followed, allowed him to select the most venerated mythological Vanir entities for his Asgård;[4] and thus, and not by free will, the Vanir mothers with their children made their final walk into Asgård.[5] The next step for Odin was to stage a mass-wedding in which the Vanir females were quickly married off to the gang of Asir gods. Patriarchy world-wide introduced the institution of marriage. It was a perfect tool in their hands. In an instant, they could gain a total right to rule a woman’s land and property, and later to inherit her land to his sons. Also marriage gave men a full control over women´s sexuality, and child-bearing. Wedding the Vanir mothers, the Asir gods completely ignored the fact that already, due to Vanir tradition, the females were firmly committed to their brothers in sibling parental pairs, and had dear lovers of their own. For once, the Asir gods also completely shut their eyes to the fact that they all married mothers-with-children, not virgins. Thus tied up in what all too soon proved to be unharmonious and miserable marriages, the lives of the Vanir mothers had suddenly been placed under the will of their masters in Asgård. As Odin´s plan was to introduce the idea of the two-world system – Gods and Humans, Sky and Earth, Heaven and Hell etc. – his next goal was to transformed the mythical Vanir mothers into goddesses in the divine Asir pantheon. Finishing off this part, he would soon be ready for the grand final, when declaring himself godly ruler of it all. But to get there, he needed just one last thing; the female’s shamanism, the sejd. The snag in every new religion is its ability to produce arguments, sufficiently convincing on its unlimited access to the spiritual world, and control of its mysteries. Odin, highest drott (druid) must have been fully skilled in the druidic art of illusions himself already.[6] Druids themselves were never found fighting within the chaotic battlefields; instead, from high locations and hills surrounding the battlefields, they performed their uncanny illusory techniques, e.g. they could make their own armies invisible, scream like raging wild animals; blind and deafen their enemies with veils of smoke, clamor and clangor etc.[7] Druidic tricks were first of all designed to scare their enemies, and to support their own army. Celtic Druids had decennials long trainings to obtain the baffling expertise in playing magnificent tricks.[8] Today’s illusionists and fairytale magicians like Gandalf are heirs of the druidic magicians. Transmitted legends and medieval recordings of stunning techniques performed in battlefield are reported also to have been carried out by Germanic/Nordic drotts, which hint to the fact that a similar druidic know-how and skill did exist in Scandinavia. But except for the existence of the title, drott (druid), and mythological references to Odin´s other names as Blinde (Blinder), meaning he, who blinds the enemy army in battlefield; or Svafner; he, who lulls the enemy to sleep; or make their weapons not bite – not much is known about any secret …
(Pilgrimage 4) Eight Devi Temples in Kumaon, Uttarakhand, India by Krista Rodin

[Editor’s Note: This and forthcoming parts are the report of pilgrimage visits made during October 2022.] Baijnath Shiva/Parvati Marriage site Baijnath is one of the most famous temple complexes in Kumaon. This is the place where Shiva is supposed to have married Parvati. The medieval complex dedicated to Shiva is directly on a bend in the Gomati River. The main temple commemorates the occasion and includes Ganesha, which is why it is called the temple of The Holy Trio. In front of it is a pond called “Golden Mahaseer,” which is an extension of the river. The goldfish in the pond are famous. The temple looks out at the surrounding mountains and hills, with the river, it would make an idyllic spot – prior to all the contemporary construction – for the legendary marriage to take place. There are eighteen shrines/temples of various sizes in the complex. One that was locked up while I was there, was dedicated to the Goddess Brahmani. This was perhaps the oldest of the group as it was constructed in the 9th c. The complex was built by the Katyuri kings, who ruled from the 7th to 13th c CE, and the area surrounding the temple complex was their capital, Karthikeypur. The majority of the construction probably occurred around 1150 CE. The main temple was built in a Dravidian style, which is a bit unusual for the region. It, and the Parvati temple, are the only two that are still functioning worship spaces, but the complex as a whole is an official Kumaon pilgrimage site.[1] Photo by Krista Rodin Dunagiri Devi To get to the Dunagiri Temple, there is a turn off heading up the mountain from the main road. This road is somewhat smaller, but also in very good condition as it leads to another major pilgrimage site. The road ends after about 16 km at the base of the Dunagiri Devi Temple. Upon arriving, a small temple to Ganesha greets the visitor before they start the ca. 500 broad step climb to the temple complex. There is a path through the woods as well, but as it was raining, I chose the covered staircase lined with bells. Before going I didn’t know how many steps were involved, so it came as a bit of a surprise that the staircase never seemed to end. I wasn’t the only one who felt that way either given what the others at the site were saying. There are many legends about the origin of the Dunagiri Devi Temple. One from the Mahabharata era (9-8th c BCE) states that the original site was built by the Pandava brothers during their exile. Later during the Ramayana period (5th-1st c BCE), Hanuman’s search for the Himalayan life-giving herb to save Lord Laxman led him to carry part of the mountain away and take it to Sri Lanka. A small piece fell to the ground at the spot of the later Dunagiri Temple. Dunagiri mountain is part of the Nanda Devi Mountain Group. Like Nanda Devi mountain, Dunagiri mountain has its own temple and both are dedicated to a form of the Goddess Durga. The temple is also known as Dronanchal or Dronagiri, which relates back to the Mahabharata story about how Guru Dronacharya of the Pandavas used to meditate here. Later other gurus and swamis were known to meditate under the Banyan tree in the middle of the courtyard. The temple itself is a square building with a rather smallish shrine space. There is a poster of Durga on the wall and room for the priest to perform pujas. Along a side wall is a glass cabinet with puja offerings. Just below the main platform to the left is another puja site. The entire area is in the middle of the forest. Off the left side in front is a bench where one can sit and admire the view of the Himalayan peaks all the way to Mt. Kailash on a clear sunny day. Unfortunately, I was there in the midst of rain and clouds, so I wasn’t able to get the fabled view, but what I was able to see was still pretty amazing. Photo by Krista Rodin (To be continued) [1] https://misfitwanderers.com/baijnath-temple-uttarakhand/ Accessed October 8, 2022. https://www.magoism.net/2018/09/meet-mago-contributor-krista-rodin-ph-d/
(Meet Mago Contributor) Arlene Bailey

Arlene Bailey is a Visionary Artist and Author inspired by the creative fire of woman in her many expressions. Her art and writing reflect the deepest, juiciest, wildest parts of woman’s soul as she explores and reclaims the raw, the authentic, the sacred and holy, the ancient in the now. As a Certified Art of Allowing Facilitator™, Ordained Priestess, Women’s Mysteries Facilitator and, drawing on her experience as a retired anthropologist, Arlene uses her painting and writing to create ritual experiences for women seeking a deeper awareness of Goddess and Self. She is a frequent contributor and current Editor with The Girl God and is also currently working on her own book of personal writings and art.For more information, visit The Sacred Wild at www.facebook.com/arlenebaileythesacredwild/ and www.instagram.com/arlenebaileyartistauthor/
(Essay) Blood & Honey: The Secret Hertory of Women by Danica Anderson, Ph.D.

Note the coin necklace– it is the dowry of gold or silver coins called ducats. However, before the Roman ducats (Latin for silver money), it was the dinars, a currency used in former Yugoslavia. Dinars before the silver or gold money refers to the Dinaric Mts in the former Yugoslav region. The Dinars on her necklace represented not her dowry but that the Moist Earth Earth’s wealth and awe of her capacity to create culture and life-pregnancy/childern. The dinar necklace in the circleor the round dance was the musical instrument accenuating her dance movements in rhythm with the Moist Mother Earth. Additionally, the sound of women in a circle – kolo with their necklaces signified the homestatis -balance in the social collective. We can see the patriachal dominace enter in with the use of the ducats and the coined necklace was to signify her dowry. “Origins of Yugoslavia South Slavs had migrated to South East … The Serbian Dinar, which was in use from 1868, continued to be used in … a fixed exchange rate but the Ducat was approximately 100 Dinara in 1931.” (Meet Mago Contributor) Danica Anderson, Ph.D. Dr. Danica Andersonwww.kolocollaboration.org
(Poetry & Art) My Body, Her Body by Arlene Bailey

The Coming of Lilith by Arlene Bailey, © 2018Art and Writing previously published in Original Resistance: Reclaiming Lilith, Reclaiming Ourselves, Girl God Books 2019 I walked barefoot on the earth My feet touching the body of my mother My body, Her body. I bathed under silvery moonlight In waters glimmering from her shine My body touching Her body. Once a month when the moon released I too released Giving my life blood back to the Mother Nourishing her as she nourished me Mother and daughter in synchronous alignment My body, Her body. Then the sky god came And his people told me I was evil That my body was shameful and I should cover it That to bathe naked under the moonlight was satan’s work And I should cover my body. That my lifeblood released with the dark moon Was the most evil of all And during this time I was unclean And I should be hidden away And my body covered. No longer was I allowed to connect to my Mother No longer was I allowed to stand in my nakedness Or to revel in the shimmering moonlight Or release my moon blood back upon the earth. They told me I was evil. They told me I was shameful. They told me I was dirty. Then they tossed me out of the garden My body, Her body. Well no more! The veil has fallen from my face No longer will I cover my hair, my body I am ALL the things they told me NOT to be ALL the things they told me I COULD not be. I AM Lilith And I stand in MY Sovereignty. Screaming forth… I. Will. Not. Submit. AND… You will not get my anger You will not label my juice parts evil Nor will you culturally codify them as shadow Something to be feared Something to be hidden. I am ALL the things you told me NOT to be All the things you told me I COULD not be All the things that make me woman. AND… I will dance under the light of the full moon Illuminating the ALL of woman. I will revel in my divinity, my dark, moist woman-ness I will shine like the stars from whence I came I will walk naked on the wet, moist earth For My body is Her body. Standing in my sovereignty I re-claim all. My body. Her body. The Light AND The Dark. No longer will I live in the Shadows For now I dance in the Full Moon light. Embracing all your namings of me… Dark Moon Lilith. Black Moon Lilith. I. AM. LILITH! Let the Revolution begin. _____________________________________________________________________ Arlene Bailey, ©2018 https://www.magoism.net/2020/04/meet-mago-contributor-arlene-bailey/ (Meet Mago Contributor) Arlene Bailey.
(Book Review) Barbara Robidoux’s The Storm Left No Flowers by Sara Wright

When “The Storm Left No Flowers” During the last year I have been struggling with the catastrophic effects of Climate Change like never before as I witness the continuation of a drought that is withering plants, starving tree roots, shriveling our wildflowers and wild grasses, leaving our mountains barren of snow, and changing the face of the high desert for the foreseeable future. With forest fires leaving me literally breathless from plumes of thick smoke that turn the sun into a ball of orange flames at dawn, unable to cope with 100 plus degree heat, my body forces me to surrender: I will not be able to make my permanent home here. Instead I will migrate like the birds do – from south to north and back again. Coming to terms with the ravages of Climate Change brought me to my knees; it has been one of the most difficult adjustments I have ever had to make. I mourn the death of the trees, plants, the loss of precious frogs and toads, insects, birds, lizards – every plant and creature is under attack and few of us can thrive (let alone survive) in such an unforgiving climate. By far the worst manifestation of desert drought is painfully obvious – the astonishing lack of rain (In my front yard here in Abiquiu, New Mexico I measured three inches of rain for the entire year of 2018). Red Willow River has shrunk into stone. Almost never having the luxury of smelling the unbearably sweet scent of rain, gazing at scrub that glows sage green after being bathed by the Cloud People, or just listening to the healing sound of a precious deluge as it soaks into parched ground creates a longing in me that runs deeper than the deepest underground river. I know now that I had to come to the desert to face what is. To paraphrase poet and writer Barbara Ribidoux ‘the world as we know it is broken.’ When I read this little book of poems with which I am now in intimate relationship with, I know there is another Indigenous woman out there that is living with what is. Barbara’s words bring me hope – not hope that all will be well – but hope in the sense that I am not alone in either my grief – or in my belief that I must take refuge in the present in order to survive this holocaust. What ‘taking refuge’ means to me is to be strong enough to stay with what is and to find joy in each moment spent appreciating each bird or tree that still lives on this precious blue – green planet that is also my home. Barbara reminds me “ the elements of earth, wind, fire and water all contribute to an ever shifting landscape that displays tremendous beauty (italics are mine) in these changing times.” I think of her as I begin each day watching the sky turn golden or crimson in the pre –dawn hours as I kneel before my wood stove giving thanks for warmth, and the gift of one more precious chance to feel Life and Love in motion. The bittersweet orange wings of Flicker in flight evokes a gasp of wonder. Barbara also notes that this is a confusing time for some bringing me closer to accepting that many simply don’t see. “Fire and Water rage. Murderous storms kill thousands. With every massive earthquake the earth changes the tilt on her axis.” Barbara also tells stories that might speak to a future as yet unknown (excerpt from Out of the Ashes): Tonight the crescent moon holds water, refuses to release rain on this dry town. The old ones tell stories in time the earth will dry fires will transform the land. Out of the ashes we will live again… “The Storm Left No Flowers” is an unforgettable book of poems that will accompany me on the journey through these last years of my life, bringing me comfort and joy, assuaging loneliness, reminding me that living in the truth of what is can be endured with integrity, dignity, and honor. I encourage anyone who loves this Earth, who grieves her losses, who fears for an incomprehensible future to be-friend this collection of poems that speak in tongues of flame, grace, and splendor. Barbara Robidoux’s book can be ordered from Amazon. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright.
(Poem & Photography) Ephemeral Emergence by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright Ephemeral Emergence Arbutus trumpets seduce bumblebees three lobed trillium wings streak rose shining stars pearling forest floors wild oats bow bluebead swords unfurl wild lily leaves clasp palms in prayer stained glass hemlock sky filters light fragrant needles fracture white sun glare…. ‘spring beauties’ rise… Photo by Sara Wright Photo by Sara Wright I have taken to the forest. If any month calls up the goddess in her wild aspect it is May when the forest floor is covered in wild flowers and bird migration is under way. Every spring I used to allow this month to be stolen by chores. With the forests disappearing so rapidly across the globe I am keenly aware that we are losing our songbirds and wild flowers too. No one mentions the loss of these birds and ephemerals who need the complexity of natural forests to thrive – is this because no one knows that we have lost 3 billion song birds or that wildflowers are with us for such a brief moment in time? I think of the hikers that now swarm well – known trails of stripped or partially cleared logged woods. People who know nothing about the birds singing their hearts out around them, the plants under their feet, or the saplings that struggle to live on without their kin. If we don’t care about our forests then why pay attention to the birds and flowers that greet us each spring? Because I care deeply about all – birds, forests, and wild flowers – I am spending all my time in the woods. I am no longer interested in maintaining gardens, especially not one for food – our air, water and soils are polluted – ‘organic,’ an expensive consumer catchword, is relative. And I am also ready to let my cultivated flower garden go because the spikes in temperature related to climate change have made it hard to keep up with watering from a dug well, not to mention the hard flash freezes. What interests me the most is that in my late 70’s I am closing a circle. I started my life loving birds and wildflowers fiercely, learning all the names of those I met as soon as I could talk. My first word was flower (for wild buttercups). Now I am returning to my first two loves, with, if possible, more appreciation than ever. May is peak migration month here in Maine. Last night more than 33,000 birds migrated through this area, and this morning I heard my 2nd warbler’s song. In the forest wild flowers bloom, the very first before leaf out, the rest before the sun gets too hot and temperatures rise. By the summer solstice, wild flowers have faded; many have already set seed. I love being present for Ephemeral Emergence and for a time I am possessed by a joy beneath words. Just like my phoebes! https://www.magoism.net/2014/12/meet-mago-contributor-sara-wright/
(Poem & Art) Caterpillar by Andrea Nicki and Liz Darling

You’re back to caterpillar going inch by inch but this time you have a strut bolder colours, bristles are less appetizing for predators You have more courage to be out in the open, to hang by a thread in the winds of chance more trust you will be blown to an opportune perch You are more worldly
(Essay 1) The Myriad Faces, Marvelous Powers, and Thealogy of Greek Goddesses by Mara Lynn Keller, Ph.D.

Available at Mago Bookstore [Editor’s Note: This and the forthcoming sequels are originally published in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Mago Books, 2018). Part 1 introduces the six sections of this essay (The Co-Evolution of Greek History and Mythology; Goddesses of Birth, Nurture, Death, and Regeneration—in Neolithic Greece; Rejoicing in the Goddess Religion—in Bronze Age Crete; The Cultural Shift from Mother Rite to Father Right—in Bronze Age Mycenaean Greece; Patriarchy versus Matriarchy—in Classical Athens; and Greek Goddess Thealogy and the Contemporary Women’s Spirituality Movement for Eco-Social Justice) and delves into the first section, The Co-Evolution of Greek History and Mythology, in which Keller enthrones Eurynome, the Creatrix of Pelasgians. Footnote numbers differ from the original article.] Throughout human history, from the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age to the present, all around the world, people have worshipped goddesses.[1] The myriad faces and marvelous powers of goddesses both reflect and also influence human behavior, culture, and history. It was only with the rise of male-centered religions during the Bronze Age (beginning circa 3500 BCE[2]), that gods became dominant over goddesses in many, but not all regions of the world. In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the Goddess has been officially suppressed under severe taboos. Notwithstanding, the Sacred Feminine remains alive in these and other male-centered, male-dominant traditions, albeit in diminished forms. Peoples practice goddess worship in strong enduring traditions in Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas, sharing many features that center on a Cosmic Goddess, Goddess of Nature, Mother of Gods, Sun Goddess, Moon Goddess, Mother Earth, Mistress of Plants and Animals, and much more.[3] Often these goddesses are paired with gods, as brother and sister, or goddess and consort—goddess and god in balance with one another. Sometimes the goddesses were more powerful, as during the Neolithic Age (circa 7000-3000 BCE) in Old Europe; or the gods became more powerful, as during the Greek Bronze Age,[4] and subsequently, in more and more regions of the world. After the Greek Goddesses and Gods became assimilated to the deities of the conquering Romans, and after Rome’s conquest of pagan European cultures, the Greek Goddesses continued as a subculture in Europe through the Christian Middle Ages. And despite the holocaust against women herbalists, healers, midwives, and “witches,” these goddesses endure until today, not only in children’s stories but in the rapidly growing turn from patriarchal religions to Goddess, Wiccan, Pagan and other nature-based religions. It would be a mistake to think that the Greek Goddesses are culturally dead, for they have persisted in Western cultural consciousness for millennia, and they are still symbols and metaphors, bearers of female powers that are healing and transformative. We have been taught that Greece is a primary cultural source of Western civilization. And yet, the narrative has usually omitted to tell us that the roots of Western cultures can be traced back further than the war stories of Homer’s Iliad to a more peaceful and egalitarian time. We will trace the history and mythos of Greek Goddesses in the six sections that follow: The Co-Evolution of Greek History and Mythology; Goddesses of Birth, Nurture, Death, and Regeneration—in Neolithic Greece; Rejoicing in the Goddess Religion—in Bronze Age Crete; The Cultural Shift from Mother Rite to Father Right—in Bronze Age Mycenaean Greece; Patriarchy versus Matriarchy—in Classical Athens; and Greek Goddess Thealogy and the Contemporary Women’s Spirituality Movement for Eco-Social Justice. We ask: What value can the ancient Greek Goddesses have for us today? To answer this, I adopt a three-fold methodology that combines a women’s spirituality perspective that highlights the spiritual dimensions connected to female life; a spiritual feminist hermeneutics that seeks to understand the spiritual significance of ancient texts about women and goddesses in their own historical contexts, as well as their relevance for us today; and archaeomythology, combining the academic disciplines and fields of archaeology, mythology, linguistics, art history, folklore, and history of religions. In doing so, we discover a rather different history of Greek religion, history, and culture. Co-Evolution of Greek History and Mythology Currently, the word myth is popularly used to indicate a false story. However, the meaning of myth encompasses the sacred stories of earlier peoples who believed in goddesses and gods prior to the rise of monotheistic masculinist gods. Myths are the sacred stories of how deities interact with humans, how humans interact with divinity. They symbolize what is most important to know about living. I will use the term mythos, sacred story, to avoid the pejorative use of the term myth. While mythos and history are not identical, there is a dialectical relationship between the two. During the Neolithic or Agrarian Age, when women (most likely) invented agriculture, weaving, and pottery,[5] the fertility of the Earth as Mother was of primary value to the cultures around the Mediterranean world, and the Mother Goddess was given pre-eminence in many of these cultures. During the Bronze Age, when warfare, empire-building, male dominance, and slavery became more and more common, warrior gods and father gods became dominant over the goddesses, as in ancient Egypt, the Levant, Anatolia, Greece, and Rome. In Pelasgia, the region that later became Greece, the earliest peoples were the Pelasgians, for whom the acorn of the oak trees provided their staple diet. Their primary deity was Eurynome, a Creatress Goddess who existed before all else. As she wandered, a wind sprang up behind Eurynome, which she fashioned into the great snake Ophion. Taking the form of a bird, she mated with the snake, and from this union came the cosmic egg, from which emerged the universe and all other beings, including humans. Wide-ruling Eurynome lived with her consort Ophion on high Mount Olympus. In time, he came to think that he had created everything. Because of his arrogance, Eurynome cast him down from the mountain top to live among humans. [6] One of these humans, Pelasgus, was the eponymous leader of the Pelasgians who migrated into Greece; he built an altar at Argos to Demeter-Pelasgia,[7] Demeter of the …

(Special Post 1) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing eight sequels (all nine parts) are a revised version of the discussion that has taken place in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, since September 24, 2017 to the present. Themes are introduced and interwoven in a somewhat random manner, as different discussants lead the discussion. The topic of the number nine is key to Magoism, primarily manifested as Nine Magos or the Nine Mago Creatrix. Mago Academy hosts a virtual and actual event, Nine Day Mago Celebration, annually.] Helen Hwang: I am thinking of the Nine Goddess/Mago Symbolism or Nine Numerology. Insights connect the data that I have collected, otherwise seemingly unrelated across cultures and periods. We have reasons to celebrate the nine symbolism among us. As seen in this discussion below, Hercules is most aptly equated with Huangdi (Yellow Emperor, 2698–2598 BCE), one of the forebear emperors of ancient China, who is alleged to have defeated Chiu (successor of Goma), the representative of Danguk’s Nine Giants (nine sub-states). The Magoist history writes the other way around. Chiu won the war, the archetypal international/global war waged over the defense/overthrow of the Magoist throne. Old Magoists (Danguk founded by Goma) of Nine Queen-led States defended the rebellion of the patrilocal force, represented by the Huangdi. With this victory, Old Magoist Confederacy of nine sub-states was able to maintain gynocentric peace of the ancient world for about five centuries longer until a man, Yao, rose to give a way for the establishment of the first patriarchal rule, ancient China of the Xia Dynasty (c. 2070 BCE – c. 1600 BCE). Nonetheless, patriarchal ethnocentric Sinocentric historiography has proliferated to this day. Yu, the founder of the Xia dynasty, is depicted as the hero who slains the nine-headed snake. What I am saying is here that the Nine Goddess/Symbolism is pre-patriarchal in origin and possibly speaks of the same event across cultures! The slain of nine-headed snakes or dragons indicates the usurpation of gynocentric rule by a patriarchal hero across cultures. Let me show you some available information and images to open the discussion. Lernaean Hydra 1 oz Copper | The 12 Labors of Hercules “Hercules was sent to slay the Lernaean Hyrda for his second Labor. The multi-headed, snake-like monster was defeated by Hercules after he sliced its one mortal head. The last day to purchase the 1 oz Copper Lernaean Hyrda was the November 12, 2014. There is, however, time to order the 5 oz Copper Hercules Round, and 5 oz Silver Hercules Round. To read about Hercules and his 12 Labors, check out our blog for more information. If you enjoy the 12 Labors of Hercules coin series, take a look at more Silver and Copper coin collections offered by Provident Metals. After defeating the Nemean Lion, Hercules was sent to slay the Lernaean Hydra for his second labor. The Hydra, a snake-like beast with multiple heads, was raised by Hera to destroy Hercules — making this an inevitable match up. In the face-off between Hercules and Hydra, the son of Zeus used a sword to slice off each of the creature’s necks, according to one popular tale. When the heads grew back, Hercules enlisted his nephew to burn each of the necks to halt regrowth. The Hydra had one mortal head, however; so Hercules used his golden sword to slay the mutant and complete his second labor. The beast is displayed on the Second Labor coin, to be released in the 12 Labors of Hercules Series. The reverse features the multi-headed Hydra in a striking position, displaying the daunting task Hercules faced. LERNAEAN HYDRA and II are inscribed. The familiar obverse portraying Hercules with the Nemean Lion draped over his head as armor is shown on this round, as it will be on each round in the powerful series. “1 oz CMXCIX (999 in Roman numerals) FINE COPPER” is also displayed. The 1 oz. Copper Lernaean Hydra rounds will only be available for one month from Oct. 12 through Nov. 12. Make sure to keep your 12 Labors of Hercules Series collection current before time runs out! 12 Labors of Hercules Driven crazy by Hera, Hercules slew his family — only regretful after recovering his sanity. King Thespius purified the son of Zeus, but to atone for his crimes, he was sent to serve King Eurystheus. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to execute 10 Labors, which were a series of tasks carried out as penance for his actions. Hercules successfully completed all 10, but because his nephew helped with one and he planned to accept payment for another, Eurystheus forced Hercules to finish two more Labors alone. Hercules’ Labors adhere to the traditional order of the Bibliotheca: Nemean Lion – Sept. 12, 2014 Lernaean Hydra – Oct. 12, 2014 Ceryneian Hind – Nov. 12, 2014 Erymanthian Boar – Dec. 12, 2014 Augean Stables – Jan. 12, 2015 Stymphalian Birds – Feb. 12, 2015 Cretan Bull – March 12, 2015 Mares of Diomedes – April 12, 2015 Girdle of Hippolyta – May 12, 2015 Cattle of Geryon – June 12, 2015 Apples of Hesperides – July 12, 2015 Cerberus – Aug. 12, 2015 Commemorate the historic battle between Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra with this 1 oz copper round from Provident Metals.” https://www.providentmetals.com/1-oz-copper-lernaean-hydra-the-12-labors-of-hercules.html Helen Hwang: I looked for the answer to this question: How many heads did the Hydra originally have? It is nine, which accords with its icons to be shared shortly. Helen Hwang: Check out Nine-fold or Nine-Headed Phoenix. Not all iconographies of pre-modern China vilify the nine symbolism, which indicates the influence/presence/revival of Magoism. This image is much reminiscent of the blue crane with nine feathers, a Magoist symbol that we have seen in Mago Stronghold, Mt. Jiri during Mago Pilgrimage (to be discussed in another space). “This Qing-dynasty (1644-1911) print shows the nine-headed phoenix, a being from Chinese mythology with a bird’s body and nine heads with human faces. It is one of several hybrid creatures mentioned in the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhai jing), where it is […]
(Special Post 3) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality? A Collective Writing

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. We have our voices together below and publish them in sequels. It is an ongoing project and we encourage our reader to join us! Submit yours today to Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Or visit and contact someone in Return to Mago’s Partner Organizations.] Helen Hwang I study and advocate Goddess feminism or Magoism because it is a way of living for me. I find myself in Mago (the Great Goddess) who in turn leads me to the Way wherein I learn how to become the person who I can be. It has to be Mago, the Female Divine, because She is real! She is the Primordial Mother who is the Beginning and the End of everything to us on the planet Earth. She teaches me the real. I can’t negotiate Her to anything less. Helen Hye Sook Hwang, Ph.D. California http://magoism.net Bridget Robertson A Goddessian I was introduced to a form of meditative journeying by a resident in my grandmother’s retirement community. She approached to me. I know she was at least part Native American, and that alone made her the topic of much gossip in the building. Her Rose colored lipstick, deep brown eyes, wrinkles that only helped illuminate her face and a chiffon scarf that matched none of her clothes. I thought she needed help with her groceries. She didn’t. She had me stop the elevator. and directly asked about my looking tired. My response was about being, busy balancing all the areas of my life. In fact I was exhausted doling out time like pieces of pie.
(Special post) Interweaving Mago Threads by Mago Circle Members

“Mago” tradition Magoism is a new word to the modern Western vocabulary, yet it has its linguistic roots in many parts of the globe and in an ancient knowledge and know-how almost lost. Dr Helen Hwang determinedly and methodically is excavating the little-understood historical Mother-Goddess knowledge of Korea, and its traditions, the Mago, and Magoism, and in doing so is unlocking another previously invisible door, and replacing another ripped-off corner of the global map of significant, almost-lost tradition and forgotten knowledge. This is a most welcomed prospect. The newness of this discovery for those who learn of it fills them with excitement because every step to remember the ancient ways, particularly the lost Goddess ways, and those ways that hint of Source, are crucial to humanity remembering itself. Moderns have become accustomed to modes of mind that strip the soul and psyche of finer attunement to earth, sea, stars and each other. This renders most adrift on a sea of seeming limitless freedoms, to be picked up by any technological hook that would substitute for inner knowing. The map becomes the new computer wiring, insurance policy or bank regulation to follow. But once we scrape from our psyches the encrustation of mind most moderns have settled with (which calcifies the innate senses and finer antennae of knowing, emboldening technologically driven modes of mind and being to take their place), then we are on our way to a vivifying recollection. Here is an earlier presentation of the “mago” root word in “imago” or image. Not coincidentally, perhaps, it is connected to maps. (Mary Ann Ghaffurian, culled from Through a Darkened Door—Light, Part 2 by Mary Ann Ghaffurian PhD [http://magoism.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/through-a-darkened-door-light-part-2-by-mary-ann-ghaffurian-phd/]) A very special online, global group Dearest X, …Which brings to mind the “other” reason why I wanted to write to you … Other than just saying “hello” and letting you know that you are very much missed, I also wanted to share with you about a very special online, global group that I have had the honor of being a part of. This group is called Mago Circle and it was founded by my dear friend, “sister” and colleague, Helen Hwang. Helen’s work and commitment to restoring Mago, Ancestral Mother Goddess, to her rightful place as progenitor and creatrix of the Korean people, has not only been admirable but truly critical during a time when we are in real need for inspiration from thought leaders and scholars with a solid foundation in the arts and research of the sacred feminine. As you know, with the roots of Korean shamanism in the realm of women, it makes perfect sense that Korean spirituality must also have sprung within the womb of Woman … the great cosmic goddess, Mago. While Helen’s work is very much grounded in meticulous research — showcasing Korea to the rest of the world in all of Her depth, herstory, and vibrance — it is more importantly, founded in genuine intentions of love, transparency, and humility. I know that Helen can explain the depth, breadth, and height of her work much better than me so I think it will be better to have her directly share more of herself with you; what I simply hope to do through this letter is perhaps help serve as a familiar hand …. reaching out to you and letting you know that your presence and blessings as a well-regarded and much-admired Korean female shaman and scholar would be much appreciated in Mago Circle. Do you remember, X, … you once told me … about 20 years ago: “Sanity is insanity with a focus.” These words I still remember and hold true … they have helped me through times that were truly dismal and chaotic in my life, and with this reassuring and transformational way of looking at myself, looking at my life, looking at the world, I have made it through. My life continues to have its share of insanity, but I know that with focus, all sanity is restored. I know that my letter to you today may feel unexpected and random (especially after not having seen each other for so, so long), but as you know, somehow, life brings us through twists and turns that may seem awkward and strange at first, but upon retrospect, all makes complete sense. In closing, may I have the honor and pleasure of introducing Helen Hwang and the Mago Circle to you … I realize that you must be very busy, but it is my sincere hope that you will find a little time to acquaint yourself with Helen and this wonderful group of women (and men) who are very much dedicated to restoring the balance and peace of Korea and the world via Mago and her goddess sisters of many names… (Wennifer Lin, culled from her letter to her old friend) I share your call for staying connected with each other at a time of cultural and religious tensions. I too believe that all tensions arise from a patriarchal system of hegemony or domination. In the absence of patriarchal hegemony, there would be little or no tension among human beings. The belief in the Mother Goddess would remove the necessity for aggression and hence domination of other human beings or animals. In the eyes of the Mother, every living being is her creature. Hence love, kindness, nurturing and all that is beautiful would prevail everywhere. Am I sounding too idealistic or am I pining for a utopian society that is just not possible? But in theory, it is possible to return to the spirit of Mother, manifest in everything in nature and in our thoughts and actions. With admiration and preservation of Mother we can change the world for a better place. So with this in mind, I submit to all women (who are the living image of the Great Mother Goddess) and goddess lovers in the world to unite in our efforts to bring back the ideals of the Great Goddess. As an academic, I […]

(Video) A Samhain Ceremony by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVRoK2XNeqw The purpose of the video is for ceremony and I suggest pausing the video where it suits you, to add your own processing, embellishments and/or your own drum, percussion and voice wherever you please. I have made short spaces in the video where it could be paused. For more full participation in the ceremony, you could have some past photos of yourself, an altar with ancestor photos, a gingerbread snake, some apples sliced up, and some apple juice. The script for this Samhain ceremony is offered in Chapter 4 of my book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony, with all acknowledgements and references there. However I want to acknowledge here the inspiration and some text of Robin Morgan’s poem “The Network of the Imaginary Mother” in her book Lady of the Beasts, for which I was given permission in my book. I also acknowledge here the paraphrase of some words by Starhawk in her book The Spiral Dance, used in the rite of Sailing to a New World. I also use a line from the poem Song of Hecate by Bridget McKern. The elements of Water, Fire, Earth and Air on the altar in this video are placed in directions that are appropriate to my region in the Southern Hemisphere, and East Coast Australia: you may place yours differently, and transliterate when I mention the direction (which I do minimally). For the rite of the Transformation Journey (remembering old selves) I use an adaptation of a children’s game “In and Out the Windows”, where each participant travels in and out of upraised and linked arms of the circle, and when ‘in’ may speak and /or show photos of themselves from the past. Some may choose to remember any self from the entire evolutionary story, with whom they would like to identify. The game seems appropriate to what each being does existentially in so many ways, over the eons as well as in our personal lives. The chant can be found on YouTube. The photos used are a collage of footage and photos from the 2024 Samhain ceremony at my place in Wakka Wakka country, South East Queensland Australia, and from previous Samhain ceremonies I facilitated over the decades in MoonCourt, Goddess ceremonial space in NSW Australia, Darug and Gundungurra country. Music credit: All music used in this video is by Tim Wheater, which has previously generously allowed me to use in my work. The pieces used are from Tim’s CD Fish Nite Moon: they are Ancient Footsteps, Fish Nite Moon, Spiritbirth, and Conception. I thank my partner Robert (Taffy) Seaborne for his participation in the creation of the video.
(Essay and Video) Cosmogenesis Dance: Celebrating Her Unfolding by Glenys Livingstone

The dance begins with two concentric circles, which will flow in and out of each other throughout the dance, resulting thus in a third concentric circle that comes and goes. The three circles/layers are understood to represent the three aspects of Goddess, the Creative Triple Dynamic that many ancients were apparently aware of, and imagined in so many different ways across the globe. In Her representation in Ireland as the Triple Spiral motif, which is inscribed on the inner chamber wall at Bru-na-Boinne (known as Newgrange)[1], She seems to be understood as a dynamic essential to on-going Cosmic Creativity, as this ancient motif is dramatically lit up by the Winter Solstice dawn. It seems that this was important to the Indigenous people of this place at the time of Winter Solstice, which celebrates Origins, the continuing birth of all. Thus I like to do this Cosmogenesis Dance, as I have named it[2], at the Winter Solstice in particular. The three aspects that the dance may embody, and are poetically understood as Goddess, celebrate (i) Virgin/Young One – Urge to Be as I have named this quality – the ever new differentiated being (also known as Fodla in the region of the Triple Spiral)[3]. This is the outer circle of individuals. (ii) Mother – the deeply related interwoven web – Dynamic Place of Being as I have named this quality – the communion that our habitat is (also known as Eriu in the region of the Triple Spiral)[4]. This is the woven middle circle where all are linked and swaying in rhythm. (iii) Crone/Old One – the eternal creative return to All-That-Is – She who Creates the Space to Be as I have named this quality (also known as Banba in the region of the Triple Spiral)[5]. This is the inner circle where linked hands are raised and stillness is held. The three concentric layers of the dance may be understood to embody these. The Cosmogenesis Dance represents the flow and balance of these three – a flow and balance of Self, Other and All-That-Is. It may be experienced like a breath, that we breathe together – as we do co-create the Cosmos. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme have named the three qualities of Cosmogenesis in the following way: – differentiation … to be is to be unique – communion … to be is to be related – autopoiesis/subjectivity … to be is to be a centre of creativity.[6] The three layers of the dance may be felt to celebrate each unique being, in deep relationship with other, directly participating in the sentient Cosmos, the Well of Creativity. The Cosmogenesis Dance as it is done within PaGaian Winter Solstice ceremony expresses the whole Creative Process we are immersed in. It is a process of complete reciprocity, a flow of Creator and Created, like a breath. There is dynamic exchange in every moment: that is the nature of the Place we inhabit. The dance may help awaken us to it, and to invoke it. The Cosmogenesis Dance on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR73MDMM9Fk For more story: Cosmogenesis Dance for Winter Ritual For Dance Instructions: PaGaian Cosmology Appendix I Meet Mago Contributor Glenys Livingstone NOTES: [1] The Triple Spiral engraving is dated at 2,400 B.C.E. [2] This dance is originally named as “The Stillpoint Dance”, or sometimes “Adoramus Te Domine” which is the name of the music used for it. I learned it from Dr. Jean Houston in 1990 at a workshop of hers in Sydney, Australia. I began to use the dance for Winter Solstice ceremony in 1997, and it was only in the second year of doing so that I realised its three layers were resonant with the three traditional qualities of the Female Metaphor/Goddess, and also the three faces of Cosmogenesis. I thereafter re-named and storied the dance that way in the ceremonial preparation and teaching for Winter Solstice. See Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology: pp. 280-281 and 311. [3] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p.192. [4] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p. 192. [5] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p. 192. [6] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p. 71-79. I have identified these qualities with the Triple Goddess, and the Triple Spiral in the synthesis of PaGaian Cosmology: see Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, particularly Chapter 4: https://pagaian.org/book/chapter-4/ References: Dames, Michael. Ireland: a Sacred Journey, Element Books, 2000. Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Lincoln NE: iUniverse, 2005. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. NY: HarperCollins, 1992.
Beltaine/High Spring within the Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 8 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Traditionally the dates for Beltaine/High Spring are: Southern Hemisphere – October 31st or 1st November Northern Hemisphere – April 30th (May Eve) or 1st May though the actual astronomical date varies. It is the meridian point or cross-quarter day between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, thus actually a little later in early November for S.H., and early May for N.H., respectively. The twin fires lit in older times on hilltops in Ireland for Beltaine likely represented the two eyes of night and day.[i] With this vision, Goddess as Sun and Moon sees Her Land, and with the power of Her eyes (Sun and Moon) brings forth life and beauty. With the fire eyes, Goddess“reoccupied and saw her whole land…”[ii] The twin fires later came to be used to run cattle between as they headed out to Summer pasture, for the purpose of burning off the bugs and ticks of Winter; the fires may thus be understood to serve a cleansing effect and likely the origins of the tradition of the ceremonial leaping of flames by participants in Beltaine festivities. In PaGaian Cosmology this is poetically expressed as the Flame of Love that burns away the psyche’s “bugs and ticks,” and sees the Beauty present, and calls it forth. The Beltaine flames may be a celebration of Sun entering into the eye, into the whole bodymind: a powerful creative evocation upon which the Dance of Life depends, and as the cleansing power of love and pleasure. PaGaian focus for Beltaine is on the Holy Desire/Passion for life, and it may be accounted for on as many levels as possible … the complete holarchy/dimensions of the erotic power. On an elemental level, there is our desire for Air, Water, the warmth of Fire, and to be of use/service to Earth. There is an essential longing, sometimes nameless, sometimes constellated, experienced physically, that may be recognized as the Desire of the Universe Herself – desiring in us.[iii] We may remember that we are united in this desire with each other, with all who have gone before us, and with all who come after us – all who dance the Dance of Life. Beltaine is a time for dancing and weaving into our lives, our heart’s desires; traditionally the dance is done with participants holding ribbons attached to a pole or tree (a Maypole in the Northern Hemisphere, which may be renamed as a “Novapole” in the Southern Hemisphere), wrapping the pole with the ribbons. This is not simply the heterosexual metaphor as is thought in modern times (thanks largely to Freudian thinking) – it is deeper than that. As Caitlin and John Matthews point out: it is symbolic of a far greater exchange than that between men and women – in fact between the elements themselves. … the maypole, a comparatively recent manifestation in the history of mystery celebrations, can be seen as the linking of heaven and earth, binding those who dance around it … into a pattern of birth, life and death which lay at the heart of the maze of earth mysteries.[iv] Beltaine is a celebration of Desire on all levels – microcosm and on the macrocosm, the exoteric and the esoteric.[v] It brought you forth physically, and it brings forth all that you produce in your life, and it keeps the Cosmos spinning. It is felt in you as Desire, it urges you on. It is the deep awesome dynamic that pervades the Cosmos and brings forth all things – babies, meals, gardens, careers, books and solar systems. We have often been taught, certainly by religious traditions, to pay it as little attention as possible; whereas it should be the cause of much more meditation/attention, tracing it to its deepest place in us. What are our deepest desires beneath our surface desires. What if we enter more deeply into this feeling, this power? It may be a place where the Universe is a deep reciprocity – a receiving and giving that is One. Brian Swimme says, in a whole chapter on “Allurement”: You can examine your own self and your own life with this question: Do I desire to have this pleasure? Or rather, do I desire to become pleasure? The demand to ‘have,’ to possess, always reveals an element of immaturity. To keep, to hold, to control, to own; all of this is fundamentally a delusion, for our own truest desire is to be and to live. We have ripened and matured when we realize that our own deepest desire in erotic attractions is to become pleasure … to enter ecstatically into pleasure so that giving and receiving pleasure become one simple activity. Our most mature hope is to become pleasure’s source and pleasure’s home simultaneously. So it is with the allurements of life: we become beauty to ignite the beauty of others.[vi] Beltaine is a good time to contemplate this animal bodymind that you are: how it seeks real pleasure. What is your real pleasure? Be gracious with this bodymind and in awe of this form, this wonder. Beltaine is also a good time to contemplate light, and its affects on our bodyminds as it enters into us; how our animal bodyminds respond directly to the Sun’s light, which apparently may awaken physical desires. Light vibrates into us – different wavelengths as different colours – and shifts to pulse. It is felt most fully in Springtime (“spring fever”), as light courses down a direct neural line from retina to pineal gland. When the pineal gland receives the light pulse it releases “a cascade of hormones, drenching the body in hunger, thirst, or great desire.”[vii] We respond directly to Sun as an organism: it is primal. NOTES: [i] Michael Dames, Ireland, 195-199. [ii] Ibid., 196. [iii] I have been inspired and informed by Swimme’s articulations about desire, particularly in Canticle to the Cosmos, video 2 “The Primeval Fireball,” video 5 “Destruction and Loss,” and video 10 “The Timing of Creativity.” [iv] Matthews, The Western Way, 54. And for more, see “Creativity …
(Video) An Autumn Equinox Ceremony by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Autumn Equinox/Mabon Northern Hemisphere – September 21-23 Southern Hemisphere – March 21-23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRJNY1LSvIs&t=1175s …oOo… The purpose of this video is for ceremony, and I suggest pausing the video where it suits you, to add your own processing, embellishments and/or your own drum, percussion and voice wherever you please. I have made short spaces in the video where it could be paused. The script for this Autumn Equinox/Mabon ceremony is offered in Chapter 11 of my book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony, with all acknowledgements and references there. In particular I mention here, credit for the story of Demeter and Persephone as told by Charlene Spretnak in her book Lost Goddesses of Early Greece. For more full participation in the ceremony, you could have one or more stalks of wheat or native grain tied with a red thread/ribbon, a garden pot with soil, a small garden trowel, a flower bulb (daffodil type), food and drink, that may represent your “harvest” – ready for eating and drinking. The elements of Water, Fire, Earth and Air on the altar in this video are placed in directions that are appropriate to my region in the Southern Hemisphere, and East Coast Australia: you may place yours differently, and transliterate when I mention the direction (which I do minimally). The images used are a collage of footage and photos from the 2024 Autumn Equinox ceremony at my place in Wakka Wakka country, South East Queensland Australia, and from previous Autumn Equinox ceremonies I facilitated over the decades in MoonCourt, Goddess ceremonial space in NSW Australia, Darug and Gundungurra country. My partner Robert (Taffy) Seaborne who has participated in all the Seasonal ceremonies since Samhain 2000, adds his voice to this video. Image credits: Demeter and Persephone (500 B.C.E. Greece). Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.72. Art of Demeter and Persephone on MoonCourt wall: Cernak Herself Music credit: “Gentle Sorrow” by Sky: which he has previously allowed me to use in my work. This piece of music is also used in the Autumn Equinox meditation on my PaGaian Cosmology Meditations published 2015.
Imbolc/Early Spring – a Season of Uncertainty by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Traditionally the Seasonal transition of Imbolc/Early Spring, celebrated in early February in the Northern Hemisphere, and in early August in the Southern Hemisphere, has been a time of nurturing the new life that is beginning to show itself, around us and within. It is a time of committing one’s self to the new life and inspiration – in the garden, in the soul, and in the Cosmos. We may include in our celebrations and contemplations of this Season the beginnings of the new young Cosmos as She was, that time in our cosmic story when She was only a billion years old and galaxies were forming; and also the new which has continually emerged throughout the eons, and is ever coming forth. The flame of being, as it has been imagined by many cultures, within and around, is to be protected and nurtured: the new being requires dedication and attention. In the early stages of its advent, there is nothing certain about its staying power and growth: it may flicker and be vulnerable. There may be uncertainties of various kinds. There is risk and resistance to coming into being. The Universe itself knew resistance to its expansion when it encountered gravitation in our very beginnings, in the primordial Flaring Forth[i]. The unfolding of the Universe was never without creative tension. The Universe knows it daily, in every moment: and we participate in this creative tension of our place of being. Urge to Be budding forth Imbolc/Early Spring can be a time of remembering personal vulnerabilities, feeling them and accepting them, but remaining resolute in birthing and tending of the new, listening for and responding to the Urge to Be[ii]of the Creative Universe within. Brian Swimme has said (quoting cultural anthropologist A.L. Kroeber) that the destiny of the human is not “bovine placidity” but the highest degree of tension that can be creatively born[iii]. many flames of being, strengthening each other These times are filled with creative tension, collectively and for most, personally as well; there is much resistance, yet there is promise of so much good energy arising. We may be witness to both. This Season of Imbolc/Early Spring may encourage attention, intention and dedication to strengthening well-being: in self, and in the relational communal context, and opening to our direct immersion in the Well of Creativity. We may be strengthened with the joining of hands, as well as the listening within to the sacred depths, in ceremonial circle at this time. NOTES: [i]As our origins (popularly named as “the Big Bang”) are named by Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme in The Universe Story. [ii]As I name this determined Virgin quality in PaGaian Cosmology. [iii]The Canticle to the Cosmos, DVD #8, “The Nature of the Human”. References: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. Swimme, Brian. Canticle to the Cosmos. DVD series, 1990.
(Essay) Ceremony as “Prayer” or Sacred Awareness By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. MoonCourt Ceremonial Space set for Autumn Equinox ceremony, 2013 Ritual/ceremony is often described as “sacred space.” I understand that to mean “awareness of the space as sacred”: all space is sacred, what shifts is our awareness – awareness of the depth of spacetime, and of the depth of all things and all beings. I understand “sacred awareness” as an awareness of deep relationship and identity with the very cosmic dynamics that create and sustain the Universe; or an awareness of what is involved in the depth of each moment, each thing, each being. Ceremony is a space and time given to expression, contemplation and nurturance of that depth … at least to something of it. Ceremony may be both an expression of deep inner truths – perceived relationship to self, Earth and Cosmos, as well as being a mode of teaching and drawing forth deeper participation. Essentially, ceremony is a way of entering into the depth of the present moment … what is deeply present right here and now, a way of entering deep space and deep time, which is not somewhere else but is right here. Every-thing, and every moment, has Depth – more depth than we usually allow ourselves to contemplate, let alone comprehend. This book, this paper, this ink, the chair, the floor – each has a history and connections that go back, all the way back to Origins. This moment you experience now, in its particular configuration, place, people present, subtle feelings, thoughts, and propensity towards certain directions or outcomes, has a depth – many histories and choices that go back … ultimately all the way back to the beginning. Great Origin is present at every point of space and time – right here. In ceremony we are plugging our awareness into something of that. In this holy context then – in this mindframe of knowing connection, everything one does is a participation in the creation of the Cosmos: for the tribal indigenous woman, perhaps the weaving of a basket; for another, perhaps preparing a meal; for you, perhaps getting on the train to go to a workplace. It is possible to regain this sense, to come to feel that the way one breathes makes a difference – that with it, you co-create the present and the future, and you may even be a blessing on the past. In every moment we receive the co-creation, the work, of innumerable beings, of innumerable moments, and innumerable interactions of the elements, in everything we touch … and so are we touched by them. The local is our touchstone to the Cosmos – it is not separate. Ceremony may be a way into this awareness, into strengthening it. Ceremony is actually ‘doing,’ not just theorizing. We can talk about our personal and cultural disconnection endlessly, but we need to actually change our minds. Ceremony can be an enabling practice – a catalyst/practice for personal and cultural change. It is not just talking about eating the pear, it is eating the pear; it is not just talking about sitting on the cushion (meditating), it is sittingon the cushion. It is a cultural practice wherein we tell a story/stories about what we believe to be so most deeply, about who and what we are. Ceremony can be a place for practicing a new language, a new way of speaking, or spelling – a place for practicing “matristic storytelling”[i] if you like: that is, for telling stories of the Mother, of Earth and Cosmos as if She were alive and sentient. We can “play like we know it,” so that we may come to know it.[ii] Ceremony then is a form of social action. I have found it useful to describe ceremony using and extending words used by Ken Wilber to describe a “transpersonal practice,” which is needed for real change: he said it was a practice that discloses “a deeper self (I or Buddha) in a deeper community (We or Sangha) expressing a deeper truth (It or Dharma).”[iii] My extension of that is: ceremony may disclose a deeper beautiful self (the I/Virgin/Urge to Be/Buddha), in a deeper relational community (the We/Mother/Place of Being/Sangha), expressing a deeper transformative truth (the It/Old One/Space to Be/Dharma). This is the “unitive body,” the “microcosmos” that Charlene Spretnak refers to in States of Grace.[iv] Since ceremony is an opportunity to give voice to deeper places in ourselves, forms of communication are used that the dreamer, the emotional, the body, can comprehend, such as music, drama, simulation, dance, chanting, singing.[v] These forms enable the entering of a level of consciousness that is there all the time, but that is not usually expressed or acknowledged. We enter a realm that is ‘out of time,’ which is commonly said to be not the “real” world, but it is more organic/indigenous to all being and at least as real as the tick-tock world. It is a place “between the worlds,” wherein we may put our hands on the very core of our lives, touch whatever it is that we feel our existence is about, and thus touch the possibility of re-creating and renewing ourselves. NOTES: [i] A term used by Gloria Feman Orenstein in The Reflowering of the Goddess (New York: Pergamon Press, 1990), 147. [ii] As my doctoral thesis supervisor Dr. Susan Murphy once described it to me in conversation. [iii] Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything (Massachusetts: Shambhala, 1996), 306-307. [iv] 145. [v] As Starhawk notes, The Spiral Dance, 45. REFERENCES: Livingstone, Glenys. A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Girl God Books: Bergen, Norway, 2023. Orenstein, Gloria Feman. The Reflowering of the Goddess. New York: Pergamon Press, 1990. Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. New York: Harper and Row, 1999. Wilber, Ken. A Brief History of Everything. Massachusetts: Shambhala, 1996.

(Essay) Reviving and Celebrating the Nine-Goddess Symbolism by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

In my ongoing research on the Great Goddess known as Mago, I have discovered the number nine gynocentric symbolism as the most prominent current that constitutes Magoism and named it the Nona (Number Nine) Mago religion/civilization/mythology. Like other civilizational inventions such as the calendar and musicology, numerology is an intellectual system of knowing the Way of Nature/Universe/Creatrix. And the number nine is no arbitrary number but is the numeric code of the Creatrix or the Primordial Mother. It codifies the cosmogonic beginning of the Primordial Mother, that is, the Primordial Mago Household. It refers to the primordial principle of the solar/terrestrial beginning.
(Poem) Just Remember WE in S/HE by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Just Remember WE in S/HE Remember the Universe is without the beginning or the end. Remember the Creatrix is the Music of the Universe.
(Photo Essay 2) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Part II: The Lost Iconography of Gaeyang Halmi We visited the Suseong Shrine a second time on July 11, 2012. I looked inside the Shrine wherein a shaman ritual was being performed by a Mudang (Korean Shaman)[i] and her assistants. The Mudang in colorful ritual outfit appeared to console her female client on behalf of the spirit. The ritual continued another hour or so and we waited outside until she finished her performance. We had come here on the day of arrival in Jungmak-dong, Buan. The shrine was locked, apparently not being in use. On our second visit, the shrine was packed with four people and their instruments and equipment. It was so compact that it left no room for another person to sit; however, it was pumping up the sober energy. In fact, I have no recollection of which musical instruments were being played inside the shrine. Nonetheless, it feels like that I was hearing the sharp and high banging of the kkwaenggwari (gong) accompanied by the janggu (hourglass drum) rhythm [symbolizing the sound of thunder and rain respectively]. The “musical” sound that I heard shook off the debris of ordinary thoughts and took me to the Other Side of Reality. I began to see things clearly the way they are. I was stepping into the history of this place that I was going to discover.

Category: Glenys Livingstone

Artful Ceremonial Expression by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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S/HE: IJGS V3 N2 2024 (B/W Paperback)

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Happy 9th Anniversary to She Rises Trilogy

December 2024 S/HE Divine Studies Forum: Cosmology, Calendar, and the Creatrix

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